A camera that caters very well to advanced amateurs and more serious photographers, it offers almost a full range of manual controls, but lacks some of the presets that please beginners.

Another great compact camera from Canon, the IXUS 70 excels with a tiny design and good quality pictures, making it ideal as an all purpose happy snap camera.

Kodak's M873 is a decent but not outstanding compact camera. The long exposure feature is nice and it is both slim and sturdy, but the pictures are marred by prominent haloing and a slightly grainy look.

The Cyber-shot DSC-W120 is a fashionable camera that is simple to use and captures crisp, rich photos, although it’s slightly expensive and doesn’t have many advanced features.

Bland styling and a small LCD display detract for an otherwise impressive package.

You might consider this model if you're a beginner looking for good image quality, but there are better buys elsewhere.

Extensive in-camera coaching and some convenient extra features make the easy-to-use HP Photosmart R717 a great choice for an ambitious beginner.

Nikon's CoolPix S520 doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. It provides decent image quality, a simple set of features and has a nice design, but it does have some speed problems and the pictures aren't perfect.

Another brilliant IXUS unit, the Canon IXUS 80 IS packs image stabilisation and good image quality into a compact and sexy body. A great package for users looking for a new point and shoot.

Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-W150 is a fairly decent compact cameras with a few niggling issues. Aside from some purple fringing it captures good shots. The interface and shot taking can be extremely slow at times, which is frustrating.

Nikon's diminutive 5.1-megapixel camera is simple to use, and it delivers more-powerful features than you'd expect from a camera priced at under $300.

A decent but still somewhat disappointing compact, the FujiFilm FinePix Z100fd produces decent pictures at low ISO settings. It's hampered by an annoying interface and some image quality issues.